Scout's recent post about people in an online group called Orkut using pictures of other people children that they took off Flickr, and modifying them for their own use got me thinking about the issue of privacy. As many regular readers know, I don't use my children's real names nor show their faces on my blog. My main reason is to protect their privacy. I, as an adult, can choose to share what I look like, and my work on my own blog, and some group blogs of which I decide to take part. My children, however, are too young to make an informed decision on their own. Plus, I've heard too many stories of people using images of children in distasteful ways, and so I don't choose to share in that way.
Besides the personal aspect of why I don't share my own children's images on the blog, Scout's post got me thinking about the issue of privacy on a wider scale. There are several questions one could ask in terms of Privacy.
1) What should be kept private, and what should be public knowledge. This is a huge question and one deeply embedded within culture.
2) Do we have a right to privacy and if we do, what things do are ours to keep private? This is where I see issues like Orkut or even knitting pattern copyrights to concern.
3) And here's the "meta-question." Why do we have a notion of privacy in the first place? Is it an inherent part of humanity, or a cultural construct?
In this post, I'm going to muse a little bit on the second question. Frankly, I'm fascinated by all the questions and may take them all on in the next couple of weeks, but since Scout's post touched off this train of thought to begin with, let's talk first about privacy as a right.
Do I think that privacy is a human right? Strictly speaking, no I don't believe that personal privacy is a basic human right. Not to get into a long, drawn out discussion of philosophy, human rights have mostly been framed in discussions where protections have been put in place to shield individuals from the State or from some larger Corporate body. Privacy from the State such as the use of Search and Siezure laws, etc. speak to privacy, but not to the issue of privacy as it applies between individuals, say a member of Flickr who wishes to post pictures that feature their children, and individuals who wish to use these pictures for their own means. Here in the US we do have laws and guidelines that speak to using images of others. For example, if an individual is featured in a picture or in a film, then that person needs to sign a release saying that their image can be used. With the internet, the protection of images, ideas, and other intellectual property has become more difficult. A person can very easily take images, ideas, and work created by others and use them themselves for good and for ill. But should they? What constitutes invasion of privacy on the internet, when it seems that whenever you put something out there on the web you are showing "the world" whatever it is you are posting. One could make the arguement that whenever you leave your house, you have made yourself public. Anyone off the street can take a picture of you, or follow you, or find out something about you. It's a creepy thought, I know, but it is true.
So when is this wrong? If I'm to listen to my own disquiet, I would say that when an image or information about an individual is used in a degrading manner, or used for personal profit (and not just monetary profit), then this is wrong. For me, the use of a child's image is especially disturbing. Children cannot protect themselves or give informed consent like an adult. In the US we have laws to that affect. Perhaps that's why Scout's post disturbs me so much. But even so, using someone else's knit pattern, or crafting pattern and publishing it or producing it for one's own gain is another example.
Anyway, there's a lot more to be said about this topic. I'm sure I've not addressed several important points, but as I've said, this is thoughts that have been running through my head lately. I have no idea how issues of privacy, protection of intellectual property, or other issues of fair use of images and ideas on the Web can agreed upon, applied, or even enforced. But I can say that it makes sense to try to protect oneself as best as one can. And so sadly, I don't share the faces or names of my children on my blog, although I count many of you my friends.
End of musing. Anyone have any thoughts?
